Interview and Giveaway with author Maggie Wells from Smokin’ Hot Firemen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today I have the honor of interviewing Maggie Wells, author of Rescue Me from the anthology Smokin' Hot Firemen. Before we start I just want to encourage you to leave a comment for chance to win one of the awesome prizes listed at the bottom of the post.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

My life isn’t nearly as exciting as the bits I dream up for my characters. I spend my days toiling in a corporate job and my nights writing steamy stories. I live in Arkansas with my hubby, a couple of kids, and a menagerie of critters that includes one very spoiled house rabbit named Tim. I’m a voracious reader, a horrible housekeeper, and completely addicted to Route 44 Diet Cokes from the Sonic Drive-In.

What genre do you write?

I write erotic romance heavy on the romance end of the spectrum. I also write contemporary romance and women’s fiction as Margaret Ethridge.

Do you have any other books published?

My first erotic romance was a friends-to-lovers story called Seducing Steve. I’ve since written three Dirty Bits short stories – Spectators, Missed Connection, and Happy Endings; a twelve novella calendar series called Hot Nights in St. Blaise with Turquoise Morning Press; and short stories for the Love Letters series from Carina Press.

My non-erotic titles as Margaret Ethridge are Contentment, Commitment, Paramour, Inamorata, and Spring Chickens. I’m very excited because Commitment was chosen as a finalist for the 2013 GDRWA Booksellers Best Award!

Congratulations! How did you get involved with the Smokin' Hot Firemen anthology?

I answered the call for submissions Delilah Devlin posted for the anthology. Lucky for me, Delilah and the good people at Cleis Press liked my spin on the traditional ‘meet cute’, which in the case of Rescue Me is more a ‘meet mortifying’.

Firemen are sexy, no doubt about that. Is there another occupation that you find sexy?

I’m a sucker for the hot cops, corporate magnates, and rock star bad boys, but I think most any occupation can be sexy depending on the man. My guy in Seducing Steve owns a computer software company and is a self-professed geek, but he’s still sexy as sin. I’ve written everything from smoke jumpers to EMTs to guys who are basically paper pushers. It’s all in the attitude.

Marketing is one of the most labor intense aspects of being a writer. What advice would you give to freshly published authors about marketing their work?

Try to work ahead. It’s hard to keep up with all the marketing and promo an author has to do, so don’t leave everything to the last minute. Write blog posts and guest spots ahead of time and schedule them to post if possible.

That is some great advice. How do you boost your writer confidence when it’s low?

Oh boy. That’s a tough one. When I feel my mojo flagging I try to write something for fun. It might be a short story or an outline for a book I hope to write one day. It just needs to be something without a deadline or expectations attached. I love the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge and participate each year. It’s a great opportunity to banish the inner editor and write like the wind!

If you were told you could eat desert for the very last time, what would it be?

Cookies. No question. Doesn’t matter what kind. I’ve never met a cookie I didn’t love, and I have the hips to prove it.

Please give an analogy of what writing is like for you.

I’d say writing is like untangling a kinked up necklace. I spend hours pick, pick, picking at the knot, tugging, coaxing, manipulating, and cussing. I just hope I have something shiny and pretty when the darn thing finally unravels.

BLURB:

Who can melt any woman’s heart with a single smile? The sexiest icon of all—a fireman!

They enter fiery structures with selfless courage–the very definition of the word “hero.” Women understand their allure… A soot-covered face, sweat dripping from hard, chiseled muscles, the sharp snap of suspenders—yes, only a fireman can make suspenders sexy! Delilah Devlin’s burning-hot book includes thrilling stories teeming with gorgeous firemen from some of today’s hottest romance writers. In “Saving Charlotte,” Sabrina York’s firefighting Dom rescues a woman tied to a red-hot bed; from Cathryn Fox comes “Temperature Rising” where a fire chief fulfills some very steamy fantasies; Elle James’s “Chasing Fire” sees a daring smoke-jumper parachuting into the hot zone of a forest fire then setting his girlfriend ablaze with erotic heat; and Magic Mike ain’t got nothin’ on Delilah’s own fireman-turned-exotic-dancer-for-a-night “Johnny Blaze.”

With a list of award-winning authors that includes Ily Goyanes, Shoshanna Evers, Adele Dubois, and Rachel Firasek, Delilah delivers tales of these courageous men sliding down their big poles to steal readers’ hearts! Smokin’ Hot Firemen imagines the romantic possibilities of being held against that massively muscled chest by a man whose mission is to protect and serve…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT

Rescue Me by Maggie Wells

When a hot fireman breaks down the wrong door, a smart woman drops her towel.

The pounding started just as Addi Mason rinsed the conditioner from her hair. Too tired to deal with Mr. Grabowski’s incessant complaining about the height of her grass, she groaned and dunked her head back under the spray. This was America, damn it. If she wanted to let her lawn grow over the two inches her nosy neighbor deemed optimum it was her business, not his.

Another round of pounding echoed through the empty house and she yanked open the shower curtain, glaring at the bathroom door. He even measured it! The man actually took a ruler and measured individual blades of grass. He claimed they were over five inches long but she wasn’t about to double-check him. Hell, five inches wasn’t enough to get any woman excited. 

She switched off the water, yanked her towel from the bar, and wrapped it around her dripping body as she climbed from the tub. The wood floors were cool as she stomped through her bedroom, ramping up to give the old man a piece of her mind.

The sound of men shouting carried through the door slowed her footsteps at the end of the hall. Had Mr. Grabowski formed some kind of posse to bring her to lawn care justice? She almost ran back to the shower but another round of rapping steeled her resolve. Knotting the bath sheet between her breasts, she marched forward to meet the enemy head-on, but drew up short when a sharp crack split the air.

Her front door exploded.

One second it was intact, the next, shards of shrapnel from the wood frame showered the rug and pinged off the walls. Addi screeched, instinctively raising her arms to shield her face. The hulking figure of a man filled the open doorway. She had barely a moment to register the vision of a firefighter in full gear before he lunged through the door, barreling straight for her. She sucked in a sharp breath and the knot unraveled. Damp terry cloth hit the floor in a heap at her feet and his hard shoulder pressed into her stomach.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

By day, Maggie Wells is buried in spreadsheets. At night, she pens tales of people tangling up the sheets. She'll tell you she's a deep down dirty girl, but you only have to scratch the surface of this mild-mannered married lady to find a naughty streak a mile wide.

Website:  http://maggie-wells.com/

One randomly drawn commenter during the tour will receive a $50 Amazon GC.

Additionally, one each of the following prizes will be awarded to randomly drawn commenters during the tour on each author’s stop. All items that require shipping are for US winners only:

Adele Dubois will award a download of REV ME UP, plus a surprise giveaway the day of her blog appearance.

Cathryn Fox will award a download of Cowboy Way.

Cynthia D’Alba will award a copy of every RS book that finaled in the RITA this year:  

          Celebrity in Death by J.D. Robb

         Dead Heat by Bronwyn Parry

         Don’t Cry for Me by Sharon Sala

         Forged in Fire by Trish McCallan

         Last Man Standing by Cindy Gerard

         Scorched by Laura Griffin

         Twisted by Laura Griffin

         Vortex by Cherry Adair

Delilah Devlin will award a handmade pendant the day of her appearance

Elle James will award a book bag, books and swag

M. Marie will award a Firemen calendar

Maggie Wells will award a pocket rocket firemen lip gloss, and downloads of her St. Blaise series books

Rachel Firasek will award a 2013 Houston Firemen Calendar

Sabrina York will award a download of her book (reader’s choice) on her blog appearance and tiara for grand prize

Tahira Iqbal will award a digital copy of The Collector

Shoshanna Evers will award an ebook of Enslaved, Book One in the Enslaved Trilogy from Simon & Schuster Pocket Star

Follow the blog tour for more chances at winning one of the fantastic prizes. The tour dates can be found at:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/06/virtual-book-tour-smokin-hot-fireman.html